'Trumponomics' doesn't add up, could cause recession: Economists

A new report from Politico has economists panning The Donald's plan for dollar bills.

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Donald Trump might be known for big ideas and yuge projects, but leading American economists say his economic proposals would throw the nation back into a recession – or maybe even a depression.

Politico reported that many of Trump's proposals, particularly those on immigration, would have dire consequences for the nation's economic health.

"If Trump's policies were enacted it would be some form of disaster for the economy," Mark Zandi told Politico. Zandi is chief economist for Moody's and was an adviser to John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign. "If you force 11 million undocumented immigrants to leave in a year, you would be looking at a depression."

Zandi explained that the nation's jobs figures are steadily improving and that, if millions of workers vanish overnight, it would doom the economy.

Likewise, in October, New York Times columnist and economist Paul Krugman compared Trump's economic proposals to the "voodoo economics" George H.W. Bush once derisively used to describe Ronald Reagan's "trickle down" theory.

Previously, Krugman had praised Trump as being one of the more sensible presidential candidates in terms of economics – at least at first glance. Then, as time marched on, things changed. Trump's tax plan would "lavish huge cuts on the wealthy while blowing up the deficit," Krugman said.

In addition to Krugman, other liberal economists have sounded the alarm on Trump's recent hard right rhetorical turn – or, in today's political parlance, his evolution – on economics.

Trump's plan today "is very much weighted to cutting taxes at the very top," economist Heather Boushey told Politico. "This by now is a decades old story. If cutting taxes at the very top would really make America grow faster, we should be growing a lot faster right now given how often we have done it."